After three games on the road, West Branch is heading back home. They will welcome the McKinley Red Dragons at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. West Branch is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 3.8 goals per game this season.
West Branch will roll into the matchup after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up one goal on Tuesday, then bounced right back against Columbiana on Thursday. Everything went West Branch's way against Columbiana as West Branch made off with a 6-1 victory. Considering the Warriors have won three games by more than three goals this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Their offense was hitting Columbiana from everywhere, as five different players booted in a goal.
Reed Martucci led that balanced group of strikers and accounted for two goals all by himself.
Meanwhile, McKinley was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their sixth straight defeat. They came up short against Lakeview, falling 9-0. While losing is never fun, the Red Dragons can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio soccer rankings (they are ranked 561st, while the Bulldogs are ranked 157th).
West Branch has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 5-1-2 record this season. As for McKinley, their loss dropped their record down to 0-6.
West Branch took their win against McKinley in their previous matchup back in August of 2023 by a conclusive 5-0. Will West Branch repeat their success, or does McKinley have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
